Bart’s 4 Bees Trip

Bart’s 4 Bees took a small group out on our first trip to a working apiary last week.  Once we were all dressed up in our safety suits, we were shown around by our beekeeping mentor, Stephen.  Some of the students were a little apprehensive about being around the open hives but were so fascinated by these charismatic insects getting on with their work that the nerves soon disappeared.  All the students were brave enough to hold a frame of bees and get up close to see all the nectar and pollen they had collected along with the brood cells full of developing baby bees!  We even spotted the queen (marked with a blue dot) surrounded by her attendant bees.

It was a great experience and certainly captured the interest of the students – the number of ‘wows’ that were heard as the frames full of bees came out of the hive was brilliant.   The students were impeccably behaved and a credit to us, but my favourite bit of the trip was listening to them congratulating themselves and each other on their bravery – what a fabulous demonstration of our BARTS values! Bart’s 4 Bees club meets every week after school on a Thursday and is open to all years – come along!